[ BUSINESS BRIEFS ]

Staff writer, with Agencies

Airport project attracts interest

A meeting on the Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) development project is planned for Wednesday in an attempt to attract investment of up to NT$40 billion (US$1.37 billion), a government official said on Friday.

The project, which is estimated to require private investment of between NT$20 billion and NT$40 billion, is to develop a 5 hectare area north of Minsheng E Road and south of the airport.

The area in front of the airport and its parking lot — estimated to be 2.58 hectares — will also be covered during the project, which will create convention centers, business hotels and office buildings, Lee said.

Due to a regulation that limits buildings in the area to 60m tall, all of the office buildings would be 20 floors or fewer, he added.

App revenues to hit US$15bn

The global mobile gaming industry is estimated to reap more than US$15 billion in revenues in 2015, the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所) said on Saturday.

The major source of revenue for worldwide mobile gaming developers on the Android platform would still be ads, while developers on the iOS platform would profit mainly from paid app downloads, according to MIC, which is under the government-funded Institute for Information Industry.

MIC analyst Ting Hung-yu (丁鴻裕) said the top 10 gaming apps in Taiwan are mostly free, adding that they have all adopted the in-app ad and purchase profitability model as a way to generate revenue.

According to MIC, more than 60 percent of smartphone users in Taiwan have downloaded games through Apple Inc’s App Store and Google Inc’s Play Store, while 20 percent of users have downloaded apps via desktop PCs.

In terms of gender difference, men prefer entertainment games and sports games, while women prefer card games and gambling.

Both genders also like games that test IQ.

51% of nation saving to retire

More than half of Taiwanese respondents to a recent poll said they were saving for retirement, which is higher than 26 percent of respondents in China, but lower than Hong Kong’s 60 percent.

Given a choice, 51 percent of Taiwanese polled said they are saving for retirement, 50 percent said they are investing their savings, 43 percent said they would spend their savings on a house or a property refurbishment, while 41 percent said they would use their savings to fund overseas travel.

The findings were based on responses collected from 421 people and were part of a survey on money management conducted by MasterCard Worldwide between late April and early June this year.

Most job hunters shun benefits

The majority of job hunters rely on their savings or family support during unemployment, according to the results of a poll released on Saturday.

The poll, conducted by online 1111 Job Bank (1111人力銀行) from September to this month, said that 61.17 percent of respondents relied on savings and 56.4 percent depended on family support while unemployed.

Only 11.06 percent said they relied on government unemployment benefits, while 10.41 percent said they worked part time to bolster their finances, the survey showed.